Outage threatens Metro — Meralco

Manila Standard Today
Thursday, 22 March, 2012 Written by Alena Mae S. Flores


POWER distributor Manila Electric Co. on Thursday urged the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines to immediately repair its damaged transformer at the Zapote substation in Las Piñas to prevent a power shortage in Metro Manila.


Meralco said a power outage had been averted, but National Grid must correct the problem quickly as it was putting at risk the company’s sub-transmission system that feeds power to the major areas in Metro Manila.


“Our system and our networks people are now on alert and ready to respond to whatever scenario this system problem or trouble may cause,” executive vice president Ricardo Buencamino said.


“Given the present limitation in Meralco’s Sector 2 as a result of the failure of NGCP’s transformer, we are taking all necessary measures to avert a potentially-prolonged power interruption in the key areas of our franchise.”


Meralco said it had put in place all mitigating measures to cope with the transmission system’s instability. It reconfigured its Sector 2 sub-transmission system to avert the overloading of two other remaining transformers at the Zapote substation.


“In so doing, however, the reliability of Meralco’s sub-transmission system which feeds power to the Makati Business District, Fort Bonifacio, Ortigas Center, Parañaque, Alabang, Cainta, Marikina, among others, is now of serious concern,” the company said.


National Grid said it was able to prevent a blackout that could have affected thousands of Metro Manila residents due to its “N-1 contingency,” a term referring to the ability of the power grid to withstand the loss of a major system component with minimal disruption to it.